Little's Smile,
Toughness Impress Team

by Case Keefer - The University Daily Kansan

No one disputes that junior
guard Sherron Collins and
sophomore center Cole Aldrich
are Kansas’ leaders.

But ask
Aldrich – or any of his
teammates – who holds the
Jayhawks together when they’re
slogging through practice or
fighting through an error-filled
stretch in a game and they’ll
give another name; junior guard
Mario Little.

“When you’re going through
tough times, you often look at
‘Rio and he’s always smiling,”
Aldrich said. “I don’t quite
know why it is, but he’s always
smiling and he has a great
smile.”

Despite missing the first 12
games of the season with a
stress fracture in his lower
left leg and a broken left hand,
Little never showed his
disappointment to teammates.
Instead, he encouraged them with
his optimism.

Little says that’s simply who
he is. That’s how his
grandmother, Hazel Little,
taught him to be.

If Aldrich is fond of Mario’s
smile, he should see how much
Mario beams when talking about
Hazel. Little uses phrases like
“my favorite” and “my heart” to
describe his relationship with
the 84—year—old who helped raise
him in Chicago.

It hasn’t been as easy,
however, for ‘Rio – as his
teammates call him – to think
about Hazel lately. For the last
two weeks, she’s been battling
internal bleeding and spending
time in hospital surgery rooms.

“It has been tough,” Little
said. “I just don’t think about
it a lot. I just try to think
about basketball – the reason
why I’m here.”

Mario won’t say dealing with
injuries and his grandmother’s
illness simultaneously has been
easy, but his teammates haven’t
seen anything that suggests
otherwise.

If Mario needed it, he could
seek attention from his
teammates the way they look
toward him on the court. But
Mario is complex.

He comforts those around him,
but doesn’t need to be comforted
himself.

“He’s always joking,” Collins
said. “He’s still joking now so
we can’t tell if he’s hurting or
not.”

Although his leg is still not
100 percent healed and he’s
still not as fast as he can be,
Little said his performance gave
Kansas fans a glimpse of what he
could do the rest of the season.

One of his utmost strengths
is versatility. Because Mario is
6-foot-5 and an effective
rebounder, Self can sub him in
as either a guard or post
player. His uniqueness as a
player mirrors his personality.

“I think he has a presence
about him that no one else on
our team has other than Sherron,”
Self said. “He believes he
belongs. He has a toughness and
a presence that elevates our
manliness as a group.”

Mario had another reason to
be happy the day before the game
against the Aggies. It was
Hazel’s 84th birthday and Mario
talked to her on the phone.

“We weren’t talking about
basketball,” Mario said. “We
were just talking about what she
was doing. I just asked her if
she was enjoying herself.”

If Mario’s recovery and play
continues to progress, he’s
certainly going to be enjoying
himself. So will his teammates.